Historically Speaking: Coach Joe Gaddis & ‘the Penny Lady’

If Joe Gaddis has his way, more “fanfare” will soon return to Oak Ridge and focus its attention on the Atomic City’s vaunted high school football program.

Gaddis accepted the offer to return and take the reins of the high school football program as head coach on March 18. In 1998, after 15 years at the helm, Joe Gaddis left Oak Ridge after 11 seasons and with a record of 119-24. He had more wins than any coach in Oak Ridge High School history and was known for his unbridled enthusiasm and his ability to create excitement.

The Oak Ridger’s Robert Holder quoted Bob Smallridge in early March as saying, “In my interview and talks with him, I see pretty much the same Joe Gaddis that I saw in 1988.” Ironically, Smallridge, a retired Oak Ridge Schools superintendent, was also back again — as an interim superintendent — at the time of Gaddis’ rehiring.

“(Joe Gaddis) is very enthusiastic, and I think he will do a super job again,” said Smallridge. “I don’t see any diminution of his intensity.”

Holder also quoted Oak Ridge High School’s athletic director, Mike Mullins, as saying, “During the search process, it was our goal to find somebody who could embrace and carry on the storied tradition of Oak Ridge football. Gaddis is the embodiment of everything we were looking for in a head coach.

“He has a proven record of state championship success at Oak Ridge as a head coach. His energy, passion and charisma is going to motivate our student athletes, alumni, faculty and community,” Mullins predicted.

I met Gaddis when he spoke to two Rotary clubs in Oak Ridge about what he calls “the best high school football job in Tennessee.” He cited Oak Ridge’s enviable record of winning state championships in the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s and observed that Oak Ridge was just eight points away from winning a state championship in 2005. He pointed out that the current decade isn’t up yet, obviously inferring that there is still time for Oak Ridge to win a state championship this decade.

In each of his talks, Gaddis has stressed his style of enthusiastic coaching, his intense desire to see the Oak Ridge community “fired up” and showing what he knows is still here — a passion for football. He wants to include as many students as possible in the program, and he has already been reaching out to the students and drawing them into what he describes as an “exciting” program “you don’t want to miss!”

At age 60 and with 30 years of high school coaching experience under his belt, he has succeeded in many schools and improved the programs in every one. That being said, the chance to return to Oak Ridge, Tenn., seems to truly be a dream come true for coach Gaddis.

Hearkening back to his younger days of coaching the Wildcats, Gaddis fondly tells the tale of the local “Penny Lady,” an endearing recollection that focuses on the coach receiving a “lucky penny” from a particularly supportive Oak Ridge resident before each and every game.

In fact, Gaddis already has received a “lucky penny” from the Penny Lady for the upcoming season-opener against the Farragut Admirals, and it’s reportedly tucked away safely in an envelope in his desk. I hope he remembers to take it with him, because in my research into the story of the “Penny Lady,” I learned of a time when the coach realized — while on the football field and just as a game was about to start — that he had forgot the lucky penny given him for that game.

With much exasperation, Gaddis sent a member of his staff back to his office to get that penny. When it was brought to him, the sweat seemed to slow and he could begin to concentrate on the game at hand. The Penny Lady’s husband, Jim Keen, told me this story.

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Let me introduce you to Catherine “Cathe” Keen. She IS the “Penny Lady” and she is a jewel. Her mobility is extremely limited now because of multiple sclerosis, but her spirit is undaunted and her unwavering support for Oak Ridge High School football remains high.

Gaddis asked about Cathe as soon as he returned to the Secret City, though he never expected to find her again. But as “luck” would have it, while having dinner at Dean’s Restaurant in Jackson Square with Don and Mary Layton, Joe told them how much those pennies had meant to him and the Laytons happened to know just who the Penny Lady was … and at that very moment the Penny Lady’s husband was walking out of Dean’s.

The Laytons pointed him out.

The coach was awestruck. He had to know if she would give him those pennies again. But he didn’t know just how to ask.

Being the outgoing person he is, Gaddis approached the Penny Lady’s husband anyway. Of course, Jim knew exactly who the coach was and he was glad to see him.

So Gaddis found out where the Penny Lady lives and, when he visited her home, the first thing the returning coach saw was that the Penny Lady was sitting in her chair, which was lovingly arranged by her husband for her comfort. She sat directly in front of the TV with a laptop computer and Gaddis immediately noticed she was drinking from an Oak Ridge championship cup!

Her cheerful smile greeted Joe, and Cathe Keen welcomed the coach to her home and back to Oak Ridge. Gaddis was delighted he’d found his Penny Lady!

Soon the conversation turned to those “found pennies,” and Gaddis asked her if she would consider continuing the tradition of providing him lucky pennies for each game. She lowered her head and tears came to her eyes. “I can’t be the Penny Lady anymore, because I can’t bring you the pennies,” she said.

“I will come to your house each week and get them,” Gaddis quickly suggested. “Would that be OK?”

Cathe agreed, knowing she truly wanted to do it again. And so the tradition continues.

As aforementioned, Cathe Keen has already given Gaddis a penny for the Farragut game and even given him a shiny new penny for good luck for the entire 2013 season. He has both pennies in “a special place” in his office and, most assuredly, in his heart.

Now he just has to remember to take the Farragut penny with him the night of the Wildcats’ first game.

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Part of my agreement with Gaddis to write this column was to go meet Cathe and get more details. He really wanted to see the Penny Lady become a large part of this story.

So I stopped by Cathe’s home and was welcomed at the door by her loving husband, Jim, who showed me photographs of Cathe and Gaddis when she was “helping him coach” by offering him pennies as well as, quite obviously from the snapshots, giving the coach her opinion about something.

That photo accompanies this column.

I learned the real story of all those “found pennies” that had to be found face up or they didn’t contain luck for coach Gaddis and his ’Cats. Think on that a bit, 143 pennies — one for each game — found face up and given to Joe Gaddis.

Here is how it really began, per Jim and Cathe. …

It was halftime at the 1988 Farragut game when Jim (not Cathe) gave Gaddis that first penny. It was done quietly and without fanfare. Jim just handed it to the coach and said “for luck.”

Jim and Cathe talked about that penny and they decided Cathe would take up the practice and would be the one who searched for pennies at work. She was a nurse and it seemed pennies just began to show up frequently — heads up! The “Penny Lady” soon had a collection of them and started going to the school on Thursdays after work and giving a penny to the coach.

She began to feel she was doing something important, I gathered. And she felt she HAD to provide that penny each and every week … and so she did.

It was a labor of love, as she would also call in on Gaddis’ radio program and quickly became a vocal supporter of the revered coach and the football program.

Jim and Cathe have two daughters who went through Oak Ridge schools and now have a grandson at Jefferson Middle School and two other younger grandsons.

“Let me tell you how much coach Gaddis impressed Cathe and me when he first started coaching at Oak Ridge,” Jim said. “I recall we always came early and waited outside the Upper Gate so we could get a good seat.

“The first game he coached, we were seated and talking with some of our friends and regulars before the game. Coach Gaddis worked his way up into the bleachers — chatting and thanking each fan for coming. In all my years at Oak Ridge High School football games, I had never seen a coach who was that interested in seeing that each and every fan he greeted was made to feel welcome.

“He even came and greeted us in a rainstorm once.”

Jim concluded by saying, “I sure hope he can generate renewed interest in Oak Ridge High School football. To us, he was the best; and we were really saddened to see him leave.

“When he left, the Penny Lady retired … even though the next coach wanted her to continue. It just wasn’t the same for Cathe and she declined.”

But the Penny Lady is back with coach Joe Gaddis now, and the two of them couldn’t be happier.